Senate Joint Resolution No. 1061 passed during the 1975
legislative session proposes an amendment to Section 9(b)
of Article VII of the Florida Constitution. This will be
voted on in March, 1975 as directed by Chapter 75-245,
Laws of Florida.

It appears that in drafting these two bills, I may have
omitted a very important provision, namely, specifying
in the amendment the date upon which it becomes effective.
In the absence of this, it appears that the constitutional
amendment, if approved by the electors in March, 1976, will
not become effective until the first Tuesday after the first
Monday in January, 1977 (January 4) in accordance with
Section 5, Article XI, of the Florida Constitution.

I believe that the present law requires that the authority
to impose ad valorem taxes be vested coincidently with or
preceding the beginning of a calendar year in order for the
taxing authority to validy levy taxes for that year. Taxes
are assessed as of January 1, although, the millage is not
set until the late summer or early fall and the taxes are
not due and payable until November 1.

All of this appears to be pursuant to statutoryAas slt out
in Chapters 192-197, Florida Statutes.

SPlease review the State Constitution, especially Article VII,
to be sure that there is nothing in the Constitution that
requires a use of a calendar year beginning on January 1 for
ad valorem tax purposes.

Then consider what amendments would have to be made to the
statutes to provide that taxes can be levied for water manage-
ment purposes during 1977 if the constitutional amendment passes
at the special election in March, 1976.

SReview this as quickly as possible, xerox pertinent parts of the
Constitution and statutes and let's discuss this before you
expend any great amount of time on it. We need to do this as
quickly as possible, since I have a feeling that the question
is going to come up most any time, probably next Monday in
Tallahassee.